BAUL FOLK MUSIC

Subject : Culture

Context : The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has made attempts to reach out to Bengali folk singer Basudeb Das Baul, days after he hosted Union Home Minister for lunch at his home in Bolpur.

Concept :

• Baul Music is a form of folk music, unique to Bangladesh and West Bengal of India.
• The word Baul means “afflicted with the wind disease” and the Baul singers are traditionally wandering minstrels singing their particular form of folk music.
• The lyrics and music are soul searching, quite comparable to the genre of Sufi music. The lyrics in Baul music urge man to search for God within himself and decry the role of mosques and temples in the quest of God.
• Lalon Shah is regarded as the most celebrated Baul saint in history.
• Baul singers usually traveled alone and had their characteristic musical accompaniments.
• They usually carried either a khamak, a string instrument with one or two strings attached to the head of a small drum or an ektara, a plucked single string drone.
• Other instruments were a khanjani, a tambourine without jangles, mandira or kartal which are small bell-shaped cymbals or ramchaki, a pair of wooden clappers with jangles.
• In 2005, the Baul tradition of Bangladesh was included in the list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.